Sunday, January 18, 2015

Somers, New York, Author Recalls 1959 High School Championship Baseball Team and Season

Somers, New York, Author Recalls 1959 High School Championship Baseball Team and
Season

Without a cloud in the sky, a spring day begs for baseball for kids across
Westchester, as the High School Sectional Championship is on the line in Mt.
Vernon, New York. The normal butterflies apply and the players understand the
magnitude of the game. It's safe to assume that the school and the city are
equally as excited - or not.

Save
a few dads who came to watch, says Somers Resident and 1959 Mount Vernon
Baseball player Bruce Fabricant, "No one gave a hoot or a holler."

But
this was a different time, he admits. One that he has recaptured in a
self-published novel called, "That Perfect Spring."

Despite
baseball being king at the time, he believes the lack of hoopla emanated from
the simple expectations parents had back then. Mostly first or second generation
Americans, he says, "They basically wanted us to stay out of trouble, go to
school and have fun."

So
long before the 1959 season, an acumen (without the need for acclaim) developed
on Mt. Vernon baseball fields. "You played all day long," he said.

Unfortunately,
the hyper-structure of sports today has put kids at a loss. In order to reserve
fields, rosters had to be filled out and forms submitted at City Hall. Your
parents didn't do any of this, he says, and it taught you responsibility.

In
turn, the process probably helped kids put aside the politics of deciding who
played where. We knew in our hearts who was the best shortstop or leadoff
hitter, he says, and there were no arguments.

On
the other hand, Mt. Vernon was one of the first Westchester cities to have
Little League Baseball. "It was very organized," he said, and when the coach
showed up at your house with the uniform, he added, it felt like receiving a
gift from Bloomingdale's.

Entering
high school, the core of the Westchester Interscholastic Athletic Association
Champs started as sophomores on JV. Otherwise, the 1959 season began
unceremoniously. Among a league consisting of schools such as White Plains,
Roosevelt and Yonkers, he says, after four games we were 2-1-1.

Belief
emerged in the form of a fifth game no-hitter. "We had tremendous pitching from
Eddie Martin," he says, who finished the season 7-0, and propelled the team to a
12-3-1 record.

Given
the bigger biceps that produce so many fly ball homeruns today, the younger fan
might be shocked at a team batting average of .245, which consisted of one
triple and no dingers. "Good defense and pitching wins," said the starting
second basemen.

In
this team's case, he says phenomenal defense, but another difference is the
manner in which the title was won. Mt. Vernon needed a win coupled with a second
place loss to secure first place and the championship. No sectionals, he says,
"Basically, you played your season and that was the end."

Nonetheless,
only passing reference in the school newspaper didn't dissuade him from writing
this book. It came to him at his 40th High School Reunion in 1999.

Coupled
and inspired by a book called, "The Glory of their Times," Mr. Fabricant
mirrored his book after this oral history of turn of the century baseball
players. Written by Lawrence Ritter, the author traveled the country
interviewing baseball players in the 1960's and came up with what Mr. Fabricant
calls, "the greatest baseball book ever written."

Tracking
down his teammates, he took his tape recorder and let them talk. Aside from one
season in the minors by the team's catcher, it doesn't matter that most of these
stories ended in slow-pitch softball leagues after high school.

In
fact, for Mr. Fabricant, the most important payoff came only years later. In
those days, he says, dads would never give out compliments and mostly remained
silent.

But
through his uncle, he learned that his father couldn't say enough about his
play. Concluding in yet another instance of this lost past, he says, "It was
like the cat's meow."